This is our first post in our “Marketing Interviews” series. The goal of these posts are to give you marketing tips and to let you know how other companies are growing their business.

Tracking System Direct is a wholesale distributor of personal and vehicle monitoring solutions for consumers, businesses and law enforcement agencies. They offer the latest in real-time tracking solutions, cost-effective passive GPS data logging devices and fleet management hardware. We caught up with Ryan Horban to ask him a few questions on their marketing.

Q: Who Are Your Competitors?

A: Ten years ago, there were only a handful of companies online that specialized in GPS tracking system technology. Today, the market is saturated with companies online dedicated to providing GPS tracking devices and other surveillance technologies. Consumers or businesses interested in investing in either personal or vehicle tracking systems need to do diligent research on both the company they intend on purchasing from and product they feel is right for them. With so many companies re-branding and packaging poorly manufactured and supported GPS monitoring devices from Taiwan, China or other regions across the globe, people need to utilize all the evaluation tools available to them before purchasing a GPS tracker.

Reading consumer reviews and researching review sites online are some of the best ways to become educated on the various tracking systems available on the market.

Q: What marketing tactic has given you the highest ROI?

A: Any business looking at enhancing their brand and increasing profit needs to put a great deal of emphasis and focus on improving marketing strategies that are working and eliminating strategies that are not effective. Each business and industry is going to have a different target market, and how that market or audience is reached is critical. In regards to the GPS tracking industry, since vehicle tracking devices currently do not have a strong presence in most retail markets; Tracking System Direct has invested the majority of marketing efforts into search engine optimization (SEO).

SEO has been the foundation of Tracking System Direct’s marketing efforts, and still to this day has resulted in the highest return on investment.

Q: What percentage ROI do you get back on this?

A: SEO has been the fundamental marketing strategy of Tracking System Direct from day one. Having a presence on Google, Yahoo, Bing and other popular search engines is more important today than ever before. With the boom in smart phone technology, people everywhere are now using voice activation or Internet features on their mobile communication devices to search for products and services in both the local and global landscape. Businesses wanting to tap into this mobile market need to put emphasis on keyword optimization and SEO for both the local and global consumers who they wish to reach. Increasing rankings on global search engines will result in increased online traffic, and an increase in traffic will typically result in more profit and ROI.

Q: What Percentage of your marketing is spent on SEO, Public Relations, Direct Marketing, Advertising, Social Media Marketing, etc.?

A: Any successful company will say that reaching, communicating and sustaining a relationship with the consumer is essential. Clearly, every business and industry is different and therefore needs to have a different marketing strategy. There is no cookie cutter answer to marketing. What works for one company may fail for another business.

Tracking System Direct spends about 75% of marketing efforts on SEO, 20% on social media marketing and the remaining 5% on an eclectic approach of advertising and other marketing avenues. With social media sites such as Facebook now receiving more traffic than Google, a company that does not put any effort into social media marketing is really shooting themselves in the foot. More and more people are putting less emphasis on keyword searching and instead consulting friends and families for referrals for products and services. Having something as simple as a fan or group page on Facebook, MySpace or any other social media platform is critical in establishing brand and company credibility.